TY - JOUR A1 - John, Thomas A1 - Aslan, Alp T1 - Part-list cuing effects in children: A developmental dissociation between the detrimental and beneficial effect JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology N2 - Providing a subset of previously studied items as a retrieval cue can both impair and improve recall of the remaining items. Here, we investigated the development of these two opposing effects of such part-list cuing in children. Using listwise directed forgetting to manipulate study context access, three child age groups (7–8, 9–11, and 13–14 years) and young adults studied a list of items and, after study, were asked to either forget or continue remembering the list. After presentation of a second list, participants were tested on predefined target items from the original list in either the presence or absence of the list’s remaining (nontarget) items serving as retrieval cues. Results revealed that part-list cuing impaired recall of to-be-remembered target items regardless of age. In contrast, part-list cuing improved recall of to-be-forgotten target items in the adult and the oldest child groups but not in the two younger child groups. This finding suggests a developmental dissociation between the two opposing effects of part-list cuing, indicating that the beneficial effect develops later than the detrimental effect. In particular, following the view that the beneficial effect of part-list cuing arises from reactivation of the study context, the results suggest that elementary school children have difficulty in capitalizing on context reactivation. KW - Cognitive development KW - Episodic memory KW - Part-list cuing KW - Directed forgetting KW - Inhibition KW - Context reactivation Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.013 VL - 166 SP - 705 EP - 712 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aslan, Alp A1 - John, Thomas T1 - The development of adaptive memory: Young children show enhanced retention of animacy-related information JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology N2 - Previous developmental work has indicated that animacy is a foundational ontogenetic category that is given priority already early in life. Here, we investigated whether such priority is also present in children’s episodic memory, examining whether young children show enhanced retention of animacy-related information. Kindergartners and younger and older elementary school children were presented with fictitious (non)words (e.g., BULA, LAFE) paired with properties characteristic of humans (e.g., “likes music”), (nonhuman) animals (e.g., “builds nests”), and inanimate things (e.g., “has four edges”) and were asked to rate the animacy status of each nonword. After a retention interval, a surprise recognition test for the nonwords was administered. We found enhanced recognition of nonwords paired with human and animal properties compared with (the same) nonwords paired with inanimate properties. The size of this animacy advantage was comparable across age groups, suggesting developmental invariance of the advantage over the age range examined (i.e., 4–11 years). The results support a functional–evolutionary view on memory, suggesting that already young children’s memory is “tuned” to process and retain animacy. KW - Cognitive development KW - Evolutionary psychology KW - Episodic memory KW - Adaptive memory KW - Ancestral priorities KW - Mnemonic animacy advantage in children Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.07.007 VL - 152 SP - 343 EP - 350 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aslan, Alp A1 - Zellner, Martina A1 - Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T. T1 - Working memory capacity predicts listwise directed forgetting in adults and children JF - Memory N2 - In listwise directed forgetting, participants are cued to forget previously studied material and to learn new material instead. Such cueing typically leads to forgetting of the first set of material and to memory enhancement of the second. The present study examined the role of working memory capacity in adults' and children's listwise directed forgetting. Working memory capacity was assessed with complex span tasks. In Experiment 1 working memory capacity predicted young adults' directed-forgetting performance, demonstrating a positive relationship between working memory capacity and each of the two directed-forgetting effects. In Experiment 2 we replicated the finding with a sample of first and a sample of fourth-grade children, and additionally showed that working memory capacity can account for age-related increases in directed-forgetting efficiency between the two age groups. Following the view that directed forgetting is mediated by inhibition of the first encoded list, the results support the proposal of a close link between working memory capacity and inhibitory function. KW - Episodic memory KW - Directed forgetting KW - Individual differences KW - Working memory capacity KW - Inhibition KW - Cognitive development Y1 - 2021 UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211003742698 VL - 18 IS - 4 SP - 442 EP - 450 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aslan, Alp A1 - Kubik, Veit T1 - Buildup and Release from Proactive Interference: The Forward Testing Effect in Children’s Spatial Memory JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology N2 - Previous work has indicated that testing can enhance memory for subsequently studied new information by reducing proactive interference from previously studied information. Here, we examined this forward testing effect in children’s spatial memory. Kindergartners (5–6 years) and younger (7–8 years) and older (9–10 years) elementary school children studied four successively presented 3 x 3 arrays, each composed of the same 9 objects. The children were asked to memorize the locations of the objects that differed across the four arrays. Following presentation of each of the first three arrays, memory for the object locations of the respective array was tested (testing condition) or the array was re-presented for additional study (restudy condition). Results revealed that testing Arrays 1 to 3 enhanced children’s object location memory for Array 4 relative to restudying. Moreover, children in the testing condition were less likely to confuse Array 4 locations with previous locations, suggesting that testing reduces the buildup of proactive interference. Both effects were found regardless of age. Thus, the current findings indicate that testing is an effective means to resolve proactive interference and, in this way, to enhance children’s learning and remembering of spatial information even before the time of school entry. KW - Cognitive development KW - Forward testing effect KW - Spatial memory KW - Test-enhanced learning in children KW - Proactive interference Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105838 VL - 240 PB - Elsevier ER -